Month: December 2017

The New York Giants, who host the Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, have some common ground.

The biggest similarity is that both teams have had issues on their respective offensive lines.

Rodgers broke his right collarbone after Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr hit him in the first quarter Sunday. The quarterback was rolling out to his right with Barr pressuring him. As Rodgers threw, Barr hit him in the midsection and drove him into the turf, where Rodgers landed on his shoulder.

Bradford was sacked four times and mostly looked like a player who’d rather hit the ground himself than have someone hit him. He finished with just 36 passing yards on 11 attempts and was mercifully replaced by Keenum just before halftime.

The Jets were at the 47-yard line with seconds left in the first half — if Catanzaro had been called in, he would have been tasked with hitting a 65-yard kick. They called one more play, however, and earned 8 yards on a pass. This resulted in a 57-yard kick for Catanzaro, which he nailed, and was still good enough for the longest field goal in Jets’ history.

For those of us who reside on Cleat Street, this is the type of attitude that brings a tear to our eye. It’s glorious. It’s a man looking at a big ole kick, and saying, “You know what? I want KICKIER.”

The Patriots play host to the Falcons and Chargers before their Week 9 bye, then they’ll start racking up frequent flyer miles. They play five of their six games after the bye on the road with trips to Denver, Mexico City to face the Raiders, Buffalo, Miami and Pittsburgh.

The Steelers haven’t been impressing the way some thought they would, but they’re still 4-2 and play the Bengals, Lions and Colts over their next three games. After that stretch, which features two road games, the Steelers will play five of their last seven in Pittsburgh.

From Weeks 9 to 17, the Seahawks will alternate home and road games. It’ll be a lot of back-and-forth travel for them, but FPI still has them favored in all but two of their remaining matchups.

Unless Kansas City can use the final 50 seconds to get a last-second score, we’re heading to OT at Arrowhead Stadium. It’s two-minute drill time for Alex Smith and company.

Chiefs 20, Washington 17: A game-winning drive in the final minutes against one of the NFL’s best teams with not one, but two Kirk Cousins runs for first downs? Somehow that’s possible as Washington sits at the Kansas City 45-yard line at the two-minute warning. Cousins has made some big plays to get his team in position for a potential game-winner, or at least to tie the game with a field goal.

Chiefs 20, Washington 17: Another long drive powered by the Chiefs’ impressive, balanced offense ends with a short field goal.

Washington 17, Chiefs 17: Kareem Hunt cannot be stopped. The rookie out of Toledo cracked the 100-yard marker for the third time in his four NFL games, and continues to be a force in the Chiefs’ backfield. His lowest single-game total yardage figure is 109 in Week 2 against Philadelphia. He’s already topped that on Monday night against Washington.

This year, while Jay Cutler’s getting paid $10 million to basically show up and do the bare minimum like an 18-year-old with a bad case of senioritis, the schedule is much harder. None of the Dolphins’ opponents for the rest of the season have a losing record right now. That includes the Bills (twice), Patriots (twice), Falcons, Raiders, Broncos, and Chiefs. A turnaround like last season is much more improbable.

But why isn’t he? Last year’s team rode a weak schedule and close wins to an 10-6 record. They went just 1-4 against teams that finished the season with a winning record.

Sources familiar with the players’ thinking told ESPN’s Dan Graziano that they went into the meeting skeptical. The level of trust between owners and players has been low in recent years, as the sides have waged court battles over the personal conduct policy and the players have spurned the owners’ efforts to open negotiations on an extension to the collective bargaining agreement. Goodell and Smith have rarely met face-to-face over the past three years, people familiar with the relationship say, and relations had reached a point where people on both sides wondered whether there’d ever be common ground for future negotiations.

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews said in September that he would kneel for the national anthem until Donald Trump apologized for statements made about protesting players. Instead, he’s stayed off the field altogether in the last two weeks and said Thursday that he would be done with football if players are forced to stand for the national anthem.

It’s the system that they’re used to, Peterson said. I just do my part, talking to Mark [Ingram] and [Alvin Kamara] when I see things they might have missed. I’m just trying to be that leader as of now.

Peterson’s two-year, $7 million contract with New Orleans is lopsided compared to the number of snaps he’s playing. The most he’s been on the field in any single game for the Saints was 15 snaps against the Patriots in Week 2. He had eight carries for 26 yards.

In this league you have to talk less and do more, Kizer said on Wednesday, when asked about his attitude on regaining the starting job. We come in every Monday after a tough loss and we have this discussion about all the things we need to do. We need to start doing those.

Pelicans guard Tony Allen, who played seven years for Memphis and coined the team’s Grit and Grind catchphrase, was featured in a video tribute between the first and second quarters.

I looked at the thing and didn’t realize I was that old, he said, adding: It was all special. A special moment.

The crowd, many wearing Allen’s Grizzlies jersey, gave Allen a long standing ovation when he entered the game in the first quarter. The team recently announced it would retire Allen’s No. 9. Earlier in the day, Allen wrote a thank you letter to the city on the Players’ Tribune website.

The Switzerland-based Global Association of International Sports Federations earlier this month granted observer status to the International Federation of (Match) Poker, the International Pole Sports Federation and International Table Soccer Federation along with the organizing bodies for four other nontraditional sports the first step toward joining the Olympic program.

We warmly welcome our first Observers, Patrick Baumann, the president of GAISF, said in a statement. This is an exciting time for them and for us and we will do everything within our remit to help them realize their full potential as International Federations within the global sport’s family and, one day, maybe become part of the Olympic program.

Joining the program in Tokyo in two years will be softball, karate, surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and baseball the games’ second shot at Olympic status. These sports were chosen, especially skateboarding and sport climbing, in part to reflect the changing interest in younger athletes and the worldwide popularity of these sports.

With the Packers’ franchise QB injured, an already volatile NFC playoff picture was jumbled even further. We put all 16 teams into one of four different categories, based on their chances of contention.

Fourth quarter: Giants 20, Broncos 10 The Broncos finally got in the end zone! Trevor Siemian zipped a pass to tight end Jeff Heuerman for a 13-yard score.

The Giants get the ball back, and that gives Orleans Darkwa a chance to go over 100 yards in the game. He currently has more yards than these four running backs gained against the Broncos, combined: Melvin Gordon (54), Ekeziel Elliott (8), LeSean McCoy (21), and Marshawn Lynch (12).

Trump has not apologized. In Week 3, the entire Tennessee team stayed in the locker room prior to a game against the Seattle Seahawks, before Matthews started doing it by himself.

When asked by reporters about his decision not to come out of the tunnel in Week 5, Matthews chose not to answer. But on Twitter, he’s shared plenty of thoughts on the presidency.

The NFL’s discussion about the national anthem will happen next week during league meetings in New York City and will include representatives from the NFLPA, including executive director DeMaurice Smith, as well as some players yet to be named. There are still plenty of things in the way of a mandate forcing players to stand, and the strong thoughts of players like Matthews are among those obstacles.

This week, NaVorro Bowman’s agent Drew Rosenhaus sent a letter to 31 teams saying he had permission to seek a trade. They tried. Now cut.

There’s reason to panic after Baltimore lost Sunday to the 2-4 Bears, who were coming off a short week and going with a rookie quarterback making his first NFL road start. But, technically, the Ravens trail the Steelers by one game in the AFC North. So, it’s difficult to entirely write them off. It’s just hard to have confidence in a team whose wins have come against these quarterbacks: Andy Dalton, DeShone Kizer and EJ Manuel. — Jamison Hensley

The Cowboys are definitely at risk of rising to a No. 4 on the panic meter, especially if Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension indeed starts immediately. Elliott will need some help from the courts to remain on the field because technically he is suspended through Thanksgiving after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction that kept him on the field. The 2-3 Cowboys face a daunting road without Elliott, but it’s not an impossible one. Before the 2016 season started, most people thought their year would be bumpy without Tony Romo, then Dak Prescott excelled.